Western Standard - October 18, 2023


New emissions-reduction funding for businesses


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Length

41 minutes

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142.88116

Word count

5,947

Sentence count

197


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 We'll be right back.
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00:04:00.000 Thank you so much for watching.
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00:05:30.000 the innovation and emissions reduction announcement we will hear from minister rebecca schultz
00:05:55.760 emissions reduction alberta and our great host venue avatar innovations as well as ever technologies
00:06:02.640 janine vanney then we will go to questions in the room and then take questions on the phone after
00:06:08.320 i'd like to now welcome the honorable rebecca schultz minister of the environment and protected
00:06:13.040 areas of alberta well thank you so much good morning everybody it is so great to be here
00:06:22.000 especially during small business week to announce an exciting new funding competition designed to
00:06:26.560 help businesses across our province as you know i'm a proud albertan and i often say what brought
00:06:32.400 me here was the promise of this amazing place a promise where if you are willing to work hard
00:06:38.320 you can be who and whatever you want to be you can chart your own path and that is because of
00:06:44.640 the amazing people who call alberta home this province is home to the big thinkers the risk
00:06:49.920 takers and the dreamers the innovators who put alberta on the map as an energy powerhouse that
00:06:55.440 helped us consistently punch well above our weight on the world stage now no one embraces this spirit
00:07:02.240 more than small and medium-sized businesses they are the backbone of our economy and of course our
00:07:07.520 province they make up about 96 of alberta's businesses and employ hundreds of thousands
00:07:13.280 of people right across our province they're a source of constant creativity and ingenuity
00:07:18.560 and they have a critical role to play in reducing emissions now and i believe for decades to come
00:07:24.640 that's because small businesses face the same challenges as larger ones when it comes to
00:07:29.040 finding ways to improving energy efficiency and lowering energy costs and they can't always
00:07:34.880 access the r d budgets that some of the larger companies enjoy yet small and medium-sized
00:07:40.240 businesses they're entrepreneurs they're problem solvers by nature they're experts at finding new
00:07:45.120 and better ways to streamline operations solve problems and develop new approaches and technologies
00:07:51.360 so that is why we're here today this funding competition i am so excited about i'm proud
00:07:57.040 to announce that alberta's government is offering 40 million dollars to help small and medium-sized
00:08:01.840 businesses lower emissions reduce energy costs and keep growing our economy this work is led
00:08:08.320 by emissions reduction alberta it's an open competition so any small or medium-sized
00:08:13.440 business can apply we're also opening it up to any indigenous business or organization as well
00:08:19.680 with 40 million dollars available we want the best and the most creative ideas they can be
00:08:25.200 scale-up projects pilot projects demonstrations a brand new first of its kind innovation this is
00:08:32.320 all about helping businesses take the next steps in energy efficiency and heating digital solutions
00:08:38.560 methane emissions reduction and a whole lot more this is of course all part of our made in alberta
00:08:44.480 plan to invest in technologies that reduce emissions create jobs and strengthen alberta's
00:08:49.920 economy we're launching this funding competition because we know that small businesses are a
00:08:54.960 critical partner in reducing emissions and transitioning our economy and we are investing
00:08:59.760 40 million dollars because we know that there is a lot of innovation happening in this province
00:09:04.400 but more than anything else we are betting on the people of alberta we are the home of innovation the
00:09:11.040 province that helped show the world how to cut methane emissions quickly and for less cost the
00:09:17.200 province that helped prove ccus isn't just an idea but an effective technology with 11 million tons
00:09:24.080 of co2 stored and counting we are the province that took existing drilling technology and turned
00:09:30.240 it into a new clean source of geothermal energy one that is set to power 200 000 homes across
00:09:37.360 germany janine you're going to talk about that in a couple minutes i'm sure innovation can come from
00:09:42.560 anywhere and innovation abounds in our amazing province today's funding competition will help
00:09:47.520 small businesses find creative ways to lower emissions reduce energy costs and keep of course
00:09:53.120 growing our economy i cannot wait to see what amazing ideas are put forward thank you so much
00:09:58.400 Thank you so much for being here and I will pass things over to Justin Riemer from Emissions Reduction Alberta to tell you more about the details of this next funding competition.
00:10:11.400 Good morning, everybody. So nice to see you all.
00:10:14.400 Thank you, Minister, for those great remarks.
00:10:16.400 Before I have my remarks, I'm going to show you a little video on this small screen behind me.
00:10:21.400 So have a look.
00:10:26.400 Whether it's forestry, agriculture, oil and gas, or power generation, Emissions Reduction Alberta's portfolio includes hundreds of funded projects that reduce emissions across sectors.
00:10:38.280 We know the biggest ideas don't always come from the biggest players. We know clean technology solutions won't always come from the places we might expect.
00:10:48.240 That's why the Government of Alberta and Emissions Reduction Alberta are launching the Emerging Innovators Challenge.
00:10:56.400 Alberta is home to numerous businesses working to commercialize technologies that reduce emissions and grow the economy.
00:11:02.880 The success of these companies will be critical to enabling a net zero economy, critical to prosperity.
00:11:10.560 $40 million in funding from the government of Alberta's tier fund will help these businesses launch their clean tech-driven businesses faster,
00:11:18.740 grow their startup, contribute to the provincial economy, and become competitive on a global stage.
00:11:24.160 This boost will help them drive economic growth and create more jobs.
00:11:29.500 To learn more about the Emerging Innovators Challenge and to see if your clean technology solution might be what we're looking for, visit eralberta.ca.
00:11:41.620 So there you have it.
00:11:43.100 And again, thank you, Minister and the Government of Alberta, for your ongoing support and commitment and transition to the net zero future.
00:11:50.240 this government's ongoing commitment to small and medium-sized enterprise underscores the role
00:11:55.680 they play in Alberta's economy. And I'd also like to thank everyone at Avatar Innovations. Thank
00:12:00.680 you, Kevin, and the Energy Transition Centre for hosting us here today. A very appropriate spot to
00:12:05.640 have this announcement. The carbon tech sector in this province plays a pivotal role in energy
00:12:10.920 transformation and Avatar is instrumental in moving innovation from concept to commercialization.
00:12:16.980 Something which we fund and something that is important fundamentally to both Emissions Reduction Alberta and the government of Alberta.
00:12:24.440 So, as Minister Schultz mentioned, this is the announcement of the Emerging Innovators Challenge.
00:12:29.860 This $40 million funding opportunity will invest in projects committed to finding technology in solutions to support the decarbonization and emissions reduction future for our industries.
00:12:41.200 Today's announcement is a bit different from some of the others.
00:12:43.500 It's focused on the small and medium-sized enterprises.
00:12:45.680 It's not technology or sector-specific.
00:12:48.920 And what do we mean when we say small and medium-sized businesses?
00:12:53.080 Simple.
00:12:53.580 By definition, medium-sized organizations employ less than 500 people.
00:12:58.140 In other words, the businesses that make up the vast majority of our economy.
00:13:02.220 While that definition may be simple, the challenges SMEs are facing are not.
00:13:07.220 So the Emerging Innovators Challenge underscores our commitment at ERA to supporting SMEs across the province.
00:13:14.400 and we recognize the important role that organizations play not only here but in the entire
00:13:20.240 canadian context and around the world this segment of our economy is are the change makers these
00:13:26.480 organizations whether they have a few people or a few hundred are dedicated to discovering
00:13:31.600 new ways to do things finding fresh approaches to facing challenges and are charting inventive
00:13:36.880 and purpose-driven paths to success they are the catalysts of innovation and that's why we're
00:13:42.240 focusing this challenge on that segment of the economy. To date, about 53% of our portfolio at
00:13:48.800 Emissions Reduction Alberta is funded projects that have been led by SMEs, by small medium-sized
00:13:54.640 enterprises. And while we're proud of that number, we would like to do more and expand our investments
00:14:00.000 in those areas. Novel transformational technologies come from smaller players, the ones that are
00:14:05.680 willing to take risks innovate and tackle challenges being smaller they're more agile
00:14:11.600 they're more adaptable in their operations and in many cases they're often more entrepreneurial
00:14:16.400 but it's a grind the sweat equity alone is not for the faint-hearted this funding opportunity
00:14:22.400 will help to de-risk technologies developments and reduce the time it takes to get innovations
00:14:27.120 to market and through this challenge era will work with other service providers in the innovation
00:14:31.760 ecosystem like avatar to help reduce barriers typically faced by smes all of it aimed at achieving
00:14:38.880 successful projects smes are foundational to our provincial economy and we're here to support their
00:14:44.800 success but what kinds of technologies are we looking for this challenge is not geared again
00:14:49.680 to any specific technology it could be around enhanced energy efficiency and productivity it
00:14:55.360 could be around the circular economy it could be around digital solutions or methane emissions
00:15:00.320 reduction it could be in the agriculture or forestry sector or natural carbon management
00:15:05.600 one stipulation for this competitive call is that the technology must be piloted or demonstrated or
00:15:11.680 deployed in alberta this investment will help smes grow their startup launch their clean tech driven
00:15:17.920 businesses and become more competitive on a global scale and drive economic growth and creation we
00:15:23.760 want to invest in projects that demonstrate a clear value proposition for reducing greenhouse gas
00:15:28.560 emissions and so the total funding of the challenge will be 40 million successful applicants
00:15:34.000 are eligible for up to 5 million dollars or a minimum request of 250 000 i'm pleased to announce
00:15:42.560 that the challenge is now open for application on the era website we're going to hear shortly
00:15:47.680 from janine at ever technologies a great success story which era helped to support in the early days
00:15:54.640 and I wanted to share a couple more examples of successful technologies and firms that emissions
00:16:00.240 reduction Alberta has supported and how those investments have paid off. So back in 2013 we
00:16:06.160 launched a 35 million dollar grand challenge innovative carbon uses. This was a funding call
00:16:12.080 designed to accelerate technology solutions and carbon dioxide utilization. This was 10 years ago.
00:16:19.280 Alberta was ahead of its time putting out a challenge like this that far back. A company
00:16:24.240 that's now called carbon upcycling technologies formed in response to that challenge they did not
00:16:29.760 win the competition they were not successful but they showed significant promise and went to
00:16:36.320 form a non-existent company to the youngest co2 utilization company to generate commercial revenue
00:16:42.960 this calgary-based startup uses co2 emissions to enhance everyday materials like concrete
00:16:48.640 plastics and batteries they went on to become one of the four canadian companies in the finals
00:16:55.280 for the carbon x prize the global x prize this established them as one of the top carbon
00:17:00.880 utilization companies in the world and last year they received 4.4 million in funding through us
00:17:06.000 for our circular economy challenge at the end of july of this year carbon upcycling closed a 26
00:17:11.840 million dollar series a funding round this will help them deploy multiple commercial projects
00:17:17.280 including two located directly at cement plants from start-up commercialization all because of
00:17:22.880 a funding call started by ERA. Carbon engineering, you may have heard of them. A direct air capture
00:17:30.800 technology that was formed several years ago and incubated out of the University of Calgary.
00:17:35.440 More than eight years ago ERA provided them $500,000 for an early stage project to demonstrate
00:17:41.840 their technology actually worked a couple months ago they were bought by occidental engineering for
00:17:47.760 1.1 billion dollars this will provide the capital to see the direct air capture technology they
00:17:54.880 have deployed at an industrial scale they are right now working on the largest direct air capture
00:18:00.000 project in the world in texas so the success of era strategic investments is best illustrated when
00:18:06.240 we see funded companies scaling up first-of-kind projects becoming operational and attracting
00:18:11.520 international attention these are significant milestones that we as albertans need to be proud
00:18:16.560 of and are helping our companies find solutions to ensure the province is on track to meeting its
00:18:21.840 targets today's announcement builds on a history of actions and accomplishments to reduce alberta
00:18:27.520 emissions and beyond dating back to the formation of era and doing it in a way without impeding
00:18:32.880 economic growth reliable or energy reliability and affordability thanks to alberta's tier fund we
00:18:39.040 We will ensure that we stay competitive, overcome barriers, and succeed on the global stage.
00:18:44.580 Thank you.
00:18:45.140 I'm now handed over to Kevin Kraussert, CEO of Avatar Innovations.
00:18:50.820 Well, thank you, Justin, for the warm introduction.
00:18:55.260 It's my pleasure to extend my heartfelt congratulations to both the government of Alberta and ERA on today's exciting announcement.
00:19:02.780 As a fourth-generation Albertan oil and gas worker and a leader in Alberta's energy transition,
00:19:09.040 I find this moment particularly significant.
00:19:12.160 My family's journey in Alberta is energy sector goes back generations.
00:19:16.560 My great grandfather, a pioneer who immigrated to Turner Valley, found here a culture of
00:19:22.720 collaboration, technological innovation, and hard work in the then nascent oil and gas industry.
00:19:29.040 He played a pivotal role in laying the foundation for an industry that would become a multi-generational
00:19:34.080 engine of economic growth for our province and our nation. His generation was at the forefront
00:19:40.160 of a global energy transformation, providing affordable energy to billions worldwide,
00:19:45.600 improving living standards unimaginably, and today as the world marches towards a net zero emissions
00:19:52.960 future by 2050, Alberta is poised to lead once again. Our energy innovation ecosystem has never
00:20:00.240 been more vibrant we are diligently working to provide today's energy needs while building the
00:20:05.920 energy system of tomorrow in a net zero world large energy companies are driving commercialization
00:20:12.400 research facilities are delivering groundbreaking concepts and innovators and entrepreneurs are
00:20:18.080 bringing these new technologies to market every day today's funding announcement is vital it
00:20:23.760 supports our innovators and entrepreneurs accelerating the delivery of crucial technologies
00:20:28.800 to market by allowing each part of our ecosystem to focus on its strengths this funding de-risks
00:20:35.040 new technologies making them attractive to the large industrial players who are capable of scaling
00:20:40.160 them it's like putting wind in the sails of these technologies propelling them forward
00:20:45.280 alberta is rapidly becoming a global center of excellence in the energy transition ready to
00:20:50.800 showcase its talents and export its cutting-edge technologies today thanks to leadership of both
00:20:56.720 the government of Alberta and emissions reduction in Alberta, we are just getting started.
00:21:01.440 ERA stands tall as a shining example of leadership, vision and collaboration in our
00:21:06.960 province's innovation ecosystem. Their dedication to supporting breakthrough technologies and
00:21:11.840 emissions reduction is truly remarkable. This funding will empower ERA to continue driving this
00:21:17.440 innovation, promoting sustainability, assisting startups and small and medium-sized enterprises
00:21:23.760 in reducing the world's carbon footprint.
00:21:26.760 As someone with decades of experience in the oil and gas industry,
00:21:29.960 I couldn't be prouder of this transition.
00:21:32.140 We're not abandoning our roots.
00:21:33.640 We're evolving them.
00:21:34.880 We're not reacting to change.
00:21:36.700 We're driving it.
00:21:37.980 Alberta is demonstrating that it can lead the world
00:21:40.180 in both traditional and sustainable energy production.
00:21:43.580 On behalf of the countless innovators working in Avatar Innovations,
00:21:47.020 we eagerly anticipate collaborating with both the government of Alberta
00:21:50.460 and ERA to shape the new energy future.
00:21:53.760 It's an exciting time for our province, and I'm honoured to be a part of it.
00:21:57.720 Now it's my pleasure to introduce our next speaker, Janine Vanny,
00:22:00.980 EVP of Corporate Services at Ever, who embodies Alberta's spirit of exporting innovation to the world.
00:22:06.860 Thank you.
00:22:12.780 Thanks, Kevin, for the introduction.
00:22:14.320 And, wow, I'm inspired.
00:22:16.340 It's an absolute pleasure to be here today to celebrate the announcement of ERA's Emerging
00:22:24.280 Innovators Challenge. As Justin mentioned, the perspective I bring is one of a former ERA grant
00:22:31.380 recipient. I work for a company called Ever Technologies. We've developed a novel advanced
00:22:36.660 geothermal system called the Everloop that is capable of producing emissions-free, scalable,
00:22:41.200 and base load heat and power from geothermal energy all using oil and gas technology but
00:22:47.900 that's not the interesting part the interesting part is rewinding back to 2017 when we started
00:22:53.220 the company in our basements I hear myself in Justin's words I hear and feel the journey that
00:23:00.020 I experienced in Justin's words we were a handful of people trying to figure out how we were going
00:23:05.040 to fund how on earth we were going to fund this idea we had that we just couldn't prove in the
00:23:09.340 lab. Like we had to get drilling rigs and put this in the ground, or we couldn't attract investment
00:23:13.940 into our company. We scoured the province looking for partners, data, and investment. We found all
00:23:20.520 three. Without the stacking of a series of grants, including the ERA, we would not be where we are
00:23:26.240 today, which is in scale-up mode. The initial ERA grant funding was used to drill and commission
00:23:31.460 the Derek Riddell Everlight facility near Rocky Mountain House. Since commissioning the Everlight
00:23:37.420 pilot i'm proud to say we've raised over 250 million dollars drilled the world's deepest
00:23:44.140 hottest directional well in onshore north america in new mexico and we are currently commercializing
00:23:49.580 in bavaria germany this project will power heat and power over a hundred thousand homes
00:23:55.180 ever's journey is an example of how crucial funding investment like that of the era grant
00:24:01.020 investment we received is important for leveraging the skills and abilities of the oil and gas
00:24:05.980 workforce and fundamentally for nurturing innovation and providing a pathway to technology
00:24:11.780 demonstration in the field. Not only are we proving up a global business model to address
00:24:16.920 energy security and decarbonization needs for many regions, we are exporting Alberta
00:24:21.980 ingenuity, expertise and technology as many places outside North America do not have the
00:24:27.400 geoengineering capabilities to drill multilateral well pads. On behalf of my colleagues at Ever,
00:24:33.280 I express our sincere gratitude to ERA and the government of Alberta
00:24:38.800 for the early stage investment, for the many meetings and due diligence sessions
00:24:43.220 in behind that investment, and ultimately for believing in us
00:24:46.680 when we were sitting in our basements with an idea.
00:24:50.040 ERA's support was absolutely fundamental in getting our company off the ground
00:24:54.140 because at that time, we were way too early for many institutional investors.
00:24:58.600 I sincerely look forward to seeing what this new grant funding stream
00:25:01.840 will unlock for the province of Alberta.
00:25:04.380 I now call Mr. Fournier back to the podium
00:25:07.060 to close the ceremony.
00:25:08.100 Thank you.
00:25:10.940 Thank you, Janine.
00:25:12.300 We will now open the floor and the phone lines to questions.
00:25:15.300 Friendly reminder that it will be one question and one
00:25:18.200 follow-up.
00:25:19.340 We're going to start with the questions in the room
00:25:21.540 before going to the phone lines.
00:25:28.280 Hello, Emma Graney from the Globe and Mail.
00:25:30.840 Justin, this is for you and ERA.
00:25:33.240 This is extremely broad, as you noted in your comments, broader than I think a lot of the things that you've done before.
00:25:39.360 So can you tell us a little bit more about how you're actually going to assess these applications,
00:25:43.600 what you're going to be looking for, and whether the successful proponents are going to have to report back with lessons learned through the money that they might get from you?
00:25:52.980 Yes, thank you.
00:25:54.060 Yes, it is a broad call.
00:25:55.280 I might point you to a recent call we had called industrial transformation where we had a series of
00:26:01.840 very innovative technologies we funded across a spectrum of different sectors and it netted
00:26:07.760 some very high quality submissions and so by broadening this call up we're hoping that SMEs
00:26:13.680 bring their best quality projects forward and we're looking for a variety of criteria and they're
00:26:20.400 now posted up on our website one of the things we're looking for is the um trl level the technology
00:26:26.720 written at readiness level of these projects they need to be at what is called the seven or or uh
00:26:32.080 seven to nine technology readiness level so very close to commercial deployment um it was going to
00:26:38.160 be good for them if they have an industrial partner where they can actually deploy and commercialize
00:26:42.480 this site funding leverage is always something we look to we have a proud history of and a track
00:26:49.280 record now of seven to one on our funding leverage so for every dollar invested we see seven dollars
00:26:53.840 invested in we look at the management team and their capacity and capabilities to pull this off
00:26:59.680 and if there's a pathway to market but we also look at the technology we have a range of engineers
00:27:04.880 and technical experts ghg measurement experts that will assess this in a rigorous way to ensure it's
00:27:11.200 a very credible and strong project going forward but we know that it's very difficult for smes to
00:27:16.800 develop these kinds of projects and get it to the TRL 7 to 9. And so as Kevin mentioned, we have a
00:27:22.560 fantastic ecosystem of support already in this province. We have Alberta Innovates, we have
00:27:27.600 Foresight, we have Avatar, we have Plug and Play and a variety of others. And we're going to work
00:27:32.420 closely with a number of these innovators to match them up with the requisite talent
00:27:36.140 of mentorship and financial support that they may need to move and progress those projects well
00:27:42.560 beyond just what our funding can do so it's going to be an ecosystem wide approach and yes all of
00:27:48.940 these projects we pay for performance so we only pay for work done so they may be awarded 2 million
00:27:54.020 but that 2 million has to reach a series of milestones and demonstrate the work and then
00:28:00.100 we pay on an invoice basis when the project is complete a final report is drawn up we require
00:28:05.820 knowledge sharing in a number of our elements we're not risking the ip of the companies but we
00:28:10.280 do want to share with the broader global population the learnings, the high-level learnings
00:28:15.560 from a lot of these projects and what's being invested in. And that's an obligation as part
00:28:19.220 of our public funding. Thanks. And to Ever Technologies, was it Janine? Question for you.
00:28:25.380 You guys do some pretty cool stuff. Yeah, feel free. Off you go. You guys do some cool stuff,
00:28:30.960 some rad technology. I understand you've contracted recently with the San Antonio Air Force base. Is
00:28:35.720 that you guys? That's correct. So geothermal projects have come under the pause by the Alberta
00:28:41.940 government when it comes to renewables. I'm curious how that would have impacted your business early
00:28:46.640 on had you been ready to go, had an approval in the line ready to be done, and the government said
00:28:51.920 no, can't do it. How much would that have impacted you guys? I don't think we would have seen a
00:28:55.840 significant impact because we present very much like an oil and gas the way you would license or
00:29:02.240 Lisa well and how you would implement that well. And so I don't think it would have a significant
00:29:08.340 impact. And I guess I would like to just to point out that we're very appreciative of where we are
00:29:13.780 at right now with the geothermal stage in Alberta. Geothermal is a part of the investment incentive
00:29:18.740 grant program, which is a huge win for people looking to develop in Alberta. And geothermal
00:29:24.460 has also been included in the Minister Jean's mandate letter as part of the climate change
00:29:29.320 strategy so i guess that's where i would leave it is i think um we feel that we're gonna it's not
00:29:36.040 going to affect us at all moving forward thank you hi there this question is through minister
00:29:44.920 schultz this is sarah often from global news i wanted to ask specifically about um any concerns
00:29:50.680 about clean tech companies moving out of alberta we've heard from a number of them who say there's
00:29:55.880 better subsidies down in the states. How do you respond to that? What role does the federal
00:30:00.600 government have in that and what role does the provincial government have in that in terms of
00:30:05.160 this moratorium that's in place and concerns over investment leaving Alberta?
00:30:09.080 You know I would say this I think that the stories that we've heard the real life stories
00:30:14.040 from those innovators here in Alberta today are a true testament to I think the ingenuity
00:30:18.840 and the entrepreneurial spirit of Albertans and you know we can support our traditional energy
00:30:24.520 industry obviously we need to we need to meet world energy demands and of course reduce emissions
00:30:31.400 and i think we're leading the way on that right here you know i think premier said last week we
00:30:35.880 were at a news conference and being asked about the impact that the pause has on renewable
00:30:41.720 investments first of all alberta led the way in canada last year when it came to renewables 75
00:30:47.880 of renewable investments across the country were here in alberta alone in fact the number of megawatts
00:30:54.280 in the queue in terms of projects that are looking to come and invest in Alberta
00:30:57.720 went from what I believe was 30,000 megawatts to over 41,000.
00:31:02.600 That shows that there is still absolutely interest. But I think
00:31:05.920 when we look at long-term certainty, the pause is really intended for us to get
00:31:09.880 these things right, to address liability, reclamation, environmental impact
00:31:14.020 concerns, and to address those across ministries
00:31:17.540 through our regulators and make sure that we do have certainty moving
00:31:21.800 forward so I think you know as we look to this I mean we're already a couple months into the pause
00:31:26.600 we've only got a few months left but I think in the long term this will help us provide
00:31:30.120 in fact more certainty in the long term yeah someone actually working quite closely with
00:31:37.320 many of the startups and also as an organization that's just recently opened our office in Houston
00:31:41.960 the thing that the inflation reduction act did that was sort of a watershed moment was first of
00:31:47.000 it was technology agnostic, anything that reduced emissions would receive funding. It didn't play
00:31:51.960 this hodgepodge of choosing winners and losers. And secondarily, it's brutally simple.
00:31:57.640 Any ton of carbon taken out of the atmosphere, you get cash between $70 and $90. So all of a sudden,
00:32:03.800 all these sub-economic projects that were going to make meaningful impacts on the energy transition
00:32:09.240 went ahead. You've seen multi-billions of dollars with the final investments decisions made
00:32:14.840 in sort of the year after the inflation reaction act it's not an alberta responsibility it's a
00:32:19.720 canadian responsibility to figure out how we compete and play in that in a pro-business pro
00:32:24.920 investment pro-technology uh sort of environment and the good news is yes you know a number of
00:32:30.920 these early stage technologies are obviously looking at what a pretty attractive market is
00:32:35.560 what canada still struggles to get its act together um the good news is is we're getting
00:32:39.640 the world's attention. The average series A valuation in the Houston region is starting to
00:32:48.120 hover around $13 million. A number of the investors I'm working with in Houston and international
00:32:54.600 ecosystems are starting to look at these same stage, same valuation technologies in the Alberta
00:32:59.880 ecosystem and I think that we can get there. The question we need to ask ourselves as Canadians
00:33:05.800 is how do we win in this transition and that's going to be by working with a technology agnostic
00:33:12.840 approach similar to the ira can i ask then just as a follow-up what the federal government what
00:33:19.240 you would like to see them doing to to continue to attract that kind of investment and that broad
00:33:24.280 investment more on that one um uh you know canada's never going to have uh the amount of dollars that
00:33:33.000 that the Americans have on throwing at the IRA.
00:33:35.840 The good news is we can be strategic around where we target these.
00:33:40.480 What I will say is I think the fatal flaw
00:33:44.120 or even potentially the dent in the armour of the IRA
00:33:47.920 is the assumption they're making is that all we have to do
00:33:51.420 is execute on the energy transition.
00:33:53.480 We'll throw a whole bunch of non-dilutive funding
00:33:55.580 at these early stage technologies.
00:33:57.160 The technology cost curve will drop like it dropped like solar.
00:34:00.660 significant amount of the cost curve drop in solar was actually interest rates. That's not a
00:34:05.140 replica technology curve that we can do. So what if it doesn't drop? And that is the where we win
00:34:12.180 is on technology and innovation. So what I would hope and encourage the government of Canada to do
00:34:18.100 would be not only look at areas where we can get these energy transition projects to at least be
00:34:22.980 on par with the economics in America, but also look at our innovation funding ecosystem that
00:34:28.820 that supports entrepreneurs as opposed to a generation of professional application fillers.
00:34:33.780 We don't need to invent more bureaucracies to manage innovation. We need to let the innovators
00:34:37.700 innovate. And I think that's what Justin did today.
00:34:43.940 Just due to time, we're going to go to the phones now, unfortunately. So operator,
00:34:48.420 you could put through the first caller. Thank you. Sean Pulsar, Western Standard.
00:34:54.020 Well, hi. Thanks for taking my call. I'm not sure who this goes to. You've mentioned
00:35:01.940 previously carbon engineering, and I'm not familiar with those folks because I've got
00:35:08.580 their friends of mine. They work in the engineering department at USC,
00:35:13.540 and they got bought by Occidental for a billion dollars. So I guess my question is,
00:35:17.940 How do we keep this technology in Canada, you know, instead of building the world's largest carbon sucker in Texas, like, why don't we have this thing going up in the restaurant here in Alberta?
00:35:31.680 How do we incentivize once we develop this technology here in Alberta and keep it here
00:35:38.320 and adjust it from going to get dollars from the IRA because these guys got a lot of dollars
00:35:46.520 from Joe Biden as well, which is why they're building a tax system in Alberta.
00:35:53.640 Sean, it's Justin Reimer from ERA.
00:35:56.360 You came in quite muffled, so I'm not sure.
00:35:58.600 But let me try and repeat if I got the question correct.
00:36:01.680 How do we compete in Canada against the U.S. who is seeing projects like carbon engineering and direct air capture successfully deployed there?
00:36:12.640 Is that the question?
00:36:15.580 Yeah.
00:36:16.220 How do we get those technologies implemented here in Alberta?
00:36:21.600 You know, like in the oil sands instead of down in the middle of Texas?
00:36:26.740 Sure.
00:36:27.420 Yeah.
00:36:27.580 So, the issue in the U.S. is it's a carrot function, right?
00:36:33.860 It's a tax credit, the Inflation Reduction Act, and it has a very straightforward economic calculation.
00:36:41.460 In Canada, it's complicated because we have provincial and federal governments weighing in with various policy incentives, tax credits, non-dilutive funding, and so forth.
00:36:52.800 And so it's not as straightforward a calculation very often to do some of these projects.
00:36:59.220 When we talk about carbon engineering deploying in Texas, the Inflation Reduction Act was obviously a big incentive and creates billions of dollars of incentive.
00:37:09.760 And perhaps we can't compete on that.
00:37:11.760 And maybe part of it, too, is the industrial makeup of our country.
00:37:15.460 We don't have a lot of those big industrial players that would be willing to fund that right off the get-go.
00:37:21.460 So one of the things that I think we're doing is trying to shore up our ecosystem here with the players in Alberta and make it more streamlined for SMEs to work with and access capital that makes it more attractive for industrial players like the oil sands, like forestry, like some of the bigger agricultural players and make it attractive for these big industrial players to want to demo these new technologies.
00:37:47.520 These big industrial companies are very risk averse, and appropriately so, they're billion-dollar companies with shareholders, so they can't make a lot of missteps.
00:37:55.480 But what we're trying to do with these kinds of funding announcements today and a lot of the other policy incentives being created by the federal and provincial government is make it easier.
00:38:03.980 We're not going to win on every competition, but we are winning on things like hydrogen, carbon capture sequestration, and a variety of other areas.
00:38:11.280 We also have a small population and a small market, so we can only do so much.
00:38:14.840 So it's important to put some of those things in perspective.
00:38:17.520 I do just want to add, and I think it's relevant to both this question and to the last one that Kevin was addressing, I think this really underscores Alberta's focus on working with industry to understand what technology exists, what is in the realm of possibility, and make sure that, you know, I mean, right now we do have a federal government that sometimes goes with a more punitive policy approach.
00:38:42.100 I think this underscores the importance of working with industry to say, look, we have
00:38:48.900 a goal for carbon neutrality by 2050, how can we get there and how can we get there
00:38:53.800 using a variety of levers, whether that be regulations, but also incentives like we're
00:38:59.320 announcing today to help industries grow and thrive.
00:39:06.180 Just as a follow-up, and I'd just like to say that
00:39:10.200 okay the tier funds are based on the federal carbon tax which is going up to 170 dollars
00:39:17.720 by uh 2035 or whatever and i'm still trying to get to an expectation of a dollar figure
00:39:25.080 of what that amount might be for a year when it hits that level but the question that i have is
00:39:31.160 would you be prepared to take those tier funds and then maybe use it to help deploy some of these
00:39:37.880 I'm not 100% sure I got all of your questions, but I think the gist of it, to summarize, you're exactly right.
00:40:06.740 long-term funding in tier is impacted by the federal carbon price um that said i mean i am
00:40:12.500 a huge supporter of this program where we are taking investments from our large emitters and
00:40:17.780 then reinvesting in industry to reduce emissions our partnership with emissions production alberta
00:40:22.580 is hugely important in that and i'm grateful for the work that justin and his team have been doing
00:40:27.060 um and we've already had a number of conversations about you know what else what does this look like
00:40:32.340 are there ways that we can look at supporting CCUS and other technologies that we want to see happening right here in Alberta?
00:40:42.080 Maybe looking at ways we can support projects at different places, I would say, in the process of development.
00:40:49.540 Those are early conversations.
00:40:51.040 We also, of course, know that we have other organizations like Alberta Innovates that also support a lot of this work.
00:40:56.200 So, you know, we're open to a lot of different ideas.
00:40:59.240 I want to continue to see Alberta be a leader when I hear Kevin and Janine talk about the amazing things that are happening right here in Alberta, building on our expertise in energy and oil and gas, and I would say celebrating our proud history and our resource development record, but also saying, you know, where are we going next?
00:41:20.700 This is exciting. This is something that we want to invest in.
00:41:24.100 And I think it just shows the great partnership as well that both the government and Emissions Production Alberta have with industry.
00:41:32.280 Unfortunately, that is all the time we have today.
00:41:34.420 So this concludes today's announcement.
00:41:36.160 Thank you and have a good day, everyone.